Memorandum of Understanding

Composition

The Hawai’i Educational Networking Consortium shall be a joint program of the Hawai’i Department of Education, University of Hawai’i, East-West Center and Hawai’i Association of Independent Schools. The Consortium complements various formal and informal partnerships and cooperative agreements that exist among the institutions. HENC’s purpose shall be to develop, facilitate and promote the use of telecommunications technology in education and research in Hawai’i. The four member institutions will be responsible for overall direction of the Consortium and its projects. HENC will conduct its business through normal institutional procedures and in accordance with applicable policies of its members. It will be guided by an advisory council comprised of members from the public and private sectors with interests in educational networking who are invited to participate. HENC will make decisions based on the full consensus of the four members. If a vote is needed on a particular matter, a simple majority shall be required to authorize any action.

Educational Connectivity

One of the Consortium purposes shall be to ensure connectivity among Hawaii’s education and research community in order to provide full access to information and communication services within the State and throughout the world. In addition, HENC will also strive to make Hawai’i’s rich set of educational resources available externally via telecommunications. To the greatest extent possible, the Consortium will not duplicate existing network infrastructure or build new physical links. It will attempt to leverage and overlay existing public and private networks to provide the services needed by Hawai’i’s educational community as specified by the community itself.

Educational Access

HENC shall coordinate educational access programming by accredited educational institutions in accord with State of Hawaii cable franchise agreements and as agreed upon with individual access entities on each island. HENC will also facilitate proposals for advancing Institutional Networks to support education and research throughout the State. Additionally HENC will mediate the development of joint positions on educational policy matters relating to cable franchise agreements.

Other Related Activities

The Consortium will consider public policy issues relevant to educational telecommunications and related matters as well as prepare consensus positions on behalf of its members. HENC will also work to purposefully enhance the international role of Hawai’i through educational telecommunications outreach into the Pacific Basin and Asia. It will represent the interests of the Hawai’i education and research community in national and international networking forums. Further, as needs and opportunities dictate, HENC will engage in other collaborative activities to advance the understanding and use of information technologies for education and research.